Another Wintry Blast, Then A (Sort Of) Break

The raised beds in my St. Albans, Vermont uard are deep in winter
dormancy, and nothing green will grow in them for a long time yet.

This has been one of the most persistently cold and wintry and early introductions to winter here in the North Country that I can remember.

In Burlington, Vermont, 18 of 30 days in November were colder than normal. So far, eight of 11 days in December were chillier than normal.

Burlington has had two feet of snow so far this early seaso, more than twice the normal for the date.

This isn't the most extreme early season cold in history, but given the many very mild Novembers and Decembers in the past decade, this year is surely a frigid slap in the face.  Several slaps for that matter.

We're getting another cold slap today, as an Arctic front came through early this morning, depositing another fluffy inch or two of snow on many of us Vermonters.

After yesterday's "toasty" 30 degree readings, it's cold again. Temperatures fell rapidly after midnight with the Arctic cold front. It was in the teens and low 20s by mid-morning, and it won't really get any warmer this afternoon.

As skies clear for most of us tonight, it's going to be another deep freeze night, much like it was this past Friday night and Saturday morning. Temperatures in areas away from Lake Champlain will get below zero again, and the colder spots will reach the teens below zero. Ugh.

There's a glimmer of temporary hope still on the horizon, however, It'll start to warm up a bit tomorrow afternoon, and thawing will set in, at least in the valleys, Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday.

It won't be incredibly warm, but 30s to near 40 isn't that bad compared to what we've often had since mid-November.

Bonus: A few days ago, I said that this warmup would probably be accompanied by a wet, windy storm that also might contain mixed precipitation, too. But, nope! It tuna our the storm will miss and slide by to our south.  There will probably be some light rain or snow showers around Friday night and Saturday but it won't be a big deal.

Beyond this coming weekend, it looks like we will trend chillier again, but it's unclear at this point how cold it will get and how long it will last.  As I've said before, we're settling into a long winter, so we'll take whatever little breaks we can get.